Raise your hand if you remember products like Summation, KnowledgeLink, and IntroSpect. We didn’t know it then, but we were the very first pioneers of what would one day become a legal technology boom.
In those days, getting attorneys to adopt new technology and change the way they worked was no small feat. Deploying new software took significant time, hands-on training, and plenty of patience.
Back then a cloud was in the sky, not in a Texas data center. We maintained our own servers and saw firsthand the amount of energy consumed. Who remembers how hot those server rooms would get?
I’ll never forget sitting in a server room at a law firm in Boston all day, just implementing a SQL database and running integrity checks. That’s unheard of today. But we sure had fun.
Then there were the grumpy partners with zero tolerance for error, who would bark at everybody but me. We worked face to face, bonded over shared experiences, and had a lot of laughs. We were implementing cutting-edge technology, yet weren’t consumed by it.
In those days, outsiders had no clue what legal tech was.
“I work on Litigation Support software.”
“What?”
“It’s legal technology.”
“What?”
“I show people at law firms how to use computers.”
“Okay, got it.”
Fast-forward to today. Legal tech is no longer something foreign to anyone. It is one of the fastest growing technology sectors in the world, and if you were around in the early days of e-discovery, you know how significant that is.
The same firms that once resisted new technology are now embracing AI, eager to find the next great way to serve their clients. That’s a wonderful thing to see, and being part of both ends of that arc has been quite a ride.
Having witnessed this evolution firsthand, I’m excited to be part of what comes next. The technology has changed dramatically, but the goal remains the same: helping professionals work smarter, serve their clients better, and embrace new possibilities.
Nobody asks me what legal tech is anymore. CRE tech? That’s another story…